The Prime Minister said he is proud of his "pretty outspoken" reputation among European leaders and stands ready to block any new spending plans that fail to tackle Brussels waste.

Speaking after a two-day summit, Mr Cameron directly challenged the EU to take "more rigorous" action to cut costs or face another veto from the UK.

"If there isn't a deal that's good for Britain, there won't be a deal," he said. "We can't have European spending go up and up and up when we're having to make difficult decisions in so many different areas."

Mr Cameron said his "favourite" fact about Brussels over-spending is that 16 per cent of administrative staff at the European Commission earn more than €100,000 or more than £80,000 a year.

"What we've done in Britain is we have cracked down on central administration, the cost of Whitehall, and on the numbers of people employed to release money for things that are more important," he said. "We need to see in the budget proposals that sort of rigorous approach. There is a deal that can be done but it can't be a deal that involves spending a lot more money."

The European Commission has asked for a higher budget that would cost Britain an extra £10 billion over seven years and repeatedly ignored requests from member countries to reduce staffing costs.

A commission spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: "We declined as it's a lot of work and waste of time for our staff who busy with more urgent matters.

"Because of language requirements, we are better educated than national civil servants. We're high fliers not burger flippers."

Mr Cameron will face pressure from many of his Conservative colleagues to secure another budget freeze for Europe when leaders debate the issue more fully in November

The Prime Minister's defensive stance towards Europe and promise to re-negotiate the relationship appeared to worry other leaders at the summit.

Francois Hollande, the French president, said Britain seems to be in "retreat" and a Finnish foreign minister claimed the UK looks like it is waving "bye bye" to the EU.

Mr Cameron yesterday shrugged off these jibes, saying it does not matter "what everyone's saying about you" as long as Britain gets a better deal from Europe.

The Prime Minister denied Britain is walking away from Europe but said he wants a "realistic, gritty" debate about relationship.

He also confirmed he would decline to attend the EU's award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize in December.

At meeting itself, the heads of state focused on financial reforms, with Eurozone countries agreeing to a banking union.

Mr Cameron managed to secure a crucial promise of "concrete" protection for Britain's financial interests, which had previously been fiercely opposed by France.

He also faced a battle over the idea of a new Eurozone budget. He argued strongly that this might help reduce the EU's budget but he met with resistance from poorer nations such as Poland, which benefit from millions of pounds in funding.